Gipsa-Lab and Lidilem (University of Grenoble) are organizing a jointinternational workshop on the topic Human Dialects and Animal Communication.

Although comparisons of communication systems of different animal speciesand human languages show numerous similarities, this comparative approachhas never been systematically applied to the concept of dialect. Within thevocalizations of certain species, as within the same human language, wefind varieties to which the generic term of dialect can be applied. Thiscomparative perspective compels us to investigate dimensions of individualvariation and dialectal variation within a collectivity of individuals, aswell as the evolution of communication systems and the biological andsocial functions of differentiation.

These questions are of concern both to linguists studying variation inhuman language (dialectologists and sociolinguists) and to biologistspecializing in varieties of animal communication (ethologists andzoologists). The answer to these questions requires that these twoscientific communities meet. Apart from scattered individual contacts, toour knowledge, no scientific event has ever been devoted to organizing sucha meeting. This is the goal of the two-day workshop that we are organizingin Grenoble on 4 and 5 March, 2013.